Different types of teaching machines in general adopt what is known as the dialogical method or the question-and-answer system for the study processes. Popular dialogical methods now in use are the method of choice and the method of paired association. The former is the system of selecting an answer for a given question from among an answer group while the latter is the system of reproducing correct and corresponding paired relationships from randomly orientated pairs of related information.
The prior art is redundant with teaching devices and the like which utilize the infallible correctness of electrical circuitry as related to comparable information and which operate lights and/or alarms that signal a correct comparison. Such devices use one or more electrical probes through which electrical continuity is established by selecting and touching correctly related electric contacts associated with the comparable information.
The following U.S. patents are exemplary of such prior art devices. In U.S. Pat. No. 3,057,082 to Wellington, et al, there is disclosed a test scoring, recording and teaching apparatus that includes counters, signal means, a printed circuit board, a probe, and a puncturable sheet. In U.S. Pat. No. 3,141,244 to Smith, there is disclosed an audio-visual teaching device that includes a control unit, a sheet of puncturable material, a sheet of non-conductive material, a probe, and circuit means. Schure, et al in U.S. Pat. No. 3,579,864 discloses a teaching device that includes a mulitiple leaf answer response sheet, card, lamps, housing and matrix. In prior U.S. Pat. No. 3,662,078 to Holiday there is disclosed a soft teaching machine that includes a recording and presenting means, means for advancing the recording and presenting means, displaying means and probe means. U.S. Pat. No. 2,673,404 discloses a magnetic game apparatus in which the gameboard is provided with iron pieces in either fixed or changeable locations, a movable game piece having a magnetizable element and an electric circuit operable when the game piece is brought into contact with the iron pieces to thereby activate an electric signal.
Although the prior art devices are generally satisfactory for their intended purposes, they generally still necessitate the use of one or more electrical probes through which electrical continuity is established by selecting and touching correctly related electrical contacts associated with the comparable information. Such devices are characterized by a board having a plurality of holes and a sheet or cover disposed over the board and having the comparable information disposed thereon. The cover or sheet may be provided with holes which must be in register with the corresponding holes on the board. The user is then required to manipulate the probes so that they perforate the sheet, or in the case of a cover, the hole therein, and pass through the corresponding holes in the board to make electrical contact to produce an output. Such prior art devices are of a disadvantage not only due to the complexity of the probe requirements, but also where the dexterity or intelligence of the user is not yet sufficiently developed to manipulate the probes. Accordingly, there is still a great need to provide an educational device which overcomes the disadvantages of the prior art.
Accordingly, a general desirable object of the present invention is to provide an educational device which overcomes these disadvantages of the prior art devices.
Another desirable object of the present invention is to provide a teaching or educational device having a plurality of informational cards whereon the positional relationship between the correlated indicia may be varied between the various training or informational cards.
Another desirable object of the present invention is to provide an educational device having a plurality of normally open electric current paths each connected to an indicator and which are selectively closed by user in relation to a training or information card without the need of manipulating one or more electrical probes to establish electrical continuity.
Other desirable objects and advantages of the present invention will in part appear hereinafter and will in part become apparent after consideration of the specification with reference to the accompanying drawings.